The Delusional Mind At Work
[Written by John Loftus] Let's take a look at what a Christian named fonsoc wrote:
One of us is wrong.
Not so at all! I take it fonsoc is a Bible believing Christian. Therefore atheists and Bible believing Christians could both be wrong. Liberal Christianity could be right, or Mormonism, or Pantheism, or Scientology, or Orthodox Judaism, Islam, or the belief in Zeus might be resurrected one day in a culture and be considered right. Agnosticism might be the only epistemological stance to take!
Notice the black or white thinking here? If fonsoc was a Muslim living in a Muslim culture he would still think in black or white terms, either Islam or atheism is correct, you see. My claim is that Christianity does not get a seat at the table by virtue of it being the dominant religion in our culture. It must earn the right to be there, and that means it must defeat all other religious contenders by showing them false before being able to claim what fonsoc claims.
You can prove me wrong when you can prove the non-existence of God and let me know where the very first cell came from at the base of Darwin's tree. I have never heard on credible answer to that question yet.
Notice that his black or white thinking continues. Either we solve all difficulties or his particular branch of Christianity win by default. I guess he will not accept an "I don't know" as an answer, nor does he understand anything about how evolution works, which explains quite a lot.
He also demands proof. This is what a deluded mind requires, proof. "Prove me wrong or I am right," they say. That is, until we can offer proof he is wrong he can ignore what is most probable. Probabilities do not matter so long as it's possible his faith is correct. But why must we prove something is the case before someone will consider it to be improbable? That's delusionary thinking at its core! In no other area do we demand proof of something before we will consider what the probabilities are for a belief. Probabilities supersede possibilities. So what if one's faith is possible? It's possible that there is a Loch Ness Monster who escapes our detection too!
You will know that I am right or wrong after you die. We will all die someday - and there is no argument against that.
This is arguing based on something that has not occurred yet. He's arguing that we'll know the truth when we die. This is not something he can know until he dies. And if there is no life after death he will never know that he was wrong, for in order to know he was wrong he'll have to wake up just long enough after dying to realize it. We are on this side of heaven and hell and on this side we want to know whether or not there is an afterlife. This argument, if it's not a threat--which more than often it is--is utterly irrelevant and fonsoc is too deluded to know this.
I am not just guessing, I am sure that there is life on the other side of death because of my personal relationship with God. I don't have to wait until I die to see that. He has given me that assurance in the here and now.
Lookee here how certain he is! My oh my, but he's certain, isn't he? That is most emphatically a mark of a deluded person. Just read through this book to see this for what it is: On Being Certain
. Robert Burton argues in this important book that, "feeling certain—feeling that we know something--- is a mental sensation, rather than evidence of fact. An increasing body of evidence suggests that feelings such as certainty stem from primitive areas of the brain and are independent of active, conscious reflection and reasoning."
Or, rather than reading that book, just travel the world and talk to other religious people and ask them how sure they are that they are right. Take a poll. Look at the results. The feeling of certainty is a delusion.
One of us is wrong. You can prove me wrong when you can prove the non-existence of God and let me know where the very first cell came from at the base of Darwin's tree. I have never heard on credible answer to that question yet. You will know that I am right or wrong after you die. We will all die someday - and there is no argument against that. I am not just guessing, I am sure that there is life on the other side of death because of my personal relationship with God. I don't have to wait until I die to see that. He has given me that assurance in the here and now. Link.
One of us is wrong.
Not so at all! I take it fonsoc is a Bible believing Christian. Therefore atheists and Bible believing Christians could both be wrong. Liberal Christianity could be right, or Mormonism, or Pantheism, or Scientology, or Orthodox Judaism, Islam, or the belief in Zeus might be resurrected one day in a culture and be considered right. Agnosticism might be the only epistemological stance to take!
Notice the black or white thinking here? If fonsoc was a Muslim living in a Muslim culture he would still think in black or white terms, either Islam or atheism is correct, you see. My claim is that Christianity does not get a seat at the table by virtue of it being the dominant religion in our culture. It must earn the right to be there, and that means it must defeat all other religious contenders by showing them false before being able to claim what fonsoc claims.
You can prove me wrong when you can prove the non-existence of God and let me know where the very first cell came from at the base of Darwin's tree. I have never heard on credible answer to that question yet.
Notice that his black or white thinking continues. Either we solve all difficulties or his particular branch of Christianity win by default. I guess he will not accept an "I don't know" as an answer, nor does he understand anything about how evolution works, which explains quite a lot.
He also demands proof. This is what a deluded mind requires, proof. "Prove me wrong or I am right," they say. That is, until we can offer proof he is wrong he can ignore what is most probable. Probabilities do not matter so long as it's possible his faith is correct. But why must we prove something is the case before someone will consider it to be improbable? That's delusionary thinking at its core! In no other area do we demand proof of something before we will consider what the probabilities are for a belief. Probabilities supersede possibilities. So what if one's faith is possible? It's possible that there is a Loch Ness Monster who escapes our detection too!
You will know that I am right or wrong after you die. We will all die someday - and there is no argument against that.
This is arguing based on something that has not occurred yet. He's arguing that we'll know the truth when we die. This is not something he can know until he dies. And if there is no life after death he will never know that he was wrong, for in order to know he was wrong he'll have to wake up just long enough after dying to realize it. We are on this side of heaven and hell and on this side we want to know whether or not there is an afterlife. This argument, if it's not a threat--which more than often it is--is utterly irrelevant and fonsoc is too deluded to know this.
I am not just guessing, I am sure that there is life on the other side of death because of my personal relationship with God. I don't have to wait until I die to see that. He has given me that assurance in the here and now.
Lookee here how certain he is! My oh my, but he's certain, isn't he? That is most emphatically a mark of a deluded person. Just read through this book to see this for what it is: On Being Certain
. Robert Burton argues in this important book that, "feeling certain—feeling that we know something--- is a mental sensation, rather than evidence of fact. An increasing body of evidence suggests that feelings such as certainty stem from primitive areas of the brain and are independent of active, conscious reflection and reasoning."Or, rather than reading that book, just travel the world and talk to other religious people and ask them how sure they are that they are right. Take a poll. Look at the results. The feeling of certainty is a delusion.
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